Billy Graham’s son Franklin Graham appeared on a podcast on Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze, and claimed that his and his father’s main concern is the “moral decline” they see taking place in America.
“Well our country has changed so much and we’ve seen the moral decline — and that moral decline being led by the Obama administration, and championing things like same-sex marriage, which is really defiance against God,” Graham said. “Same-sex marriage is a sin against God. God made us male and female, and then to say that marriage is now between two men or two women, this is sin and the Obama administration is celebrating sin and they are pushing sin.”
Graham immediately follows this up by saying he is not bashing gay people, but that he is simply trying to show them the light.
“I want them to know the truth: that the lifestyle that they’re living, God will one day judge that. And they’ll stand before God, and God will condemn that, and they will spend an eternity separated from Him,” Graham said. “But can a gay person be forgiven? Yes, but they have to turn. Like any of us…we have to turn from our sin…whether it be murdering people, whether it be stealing, whether it be committing adultery…You have to turn from those sins.”
You can listen to the full exchange below:
This isn’t Franklin Graham’s first foray into anti-gay rhetoric. Last year, he claimed gay people recruit children, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin was right about the “gay agenda.” He also claimed in 2012 that Obama’s reelection sends the United States down the “path of destruction.” In February of this year he spoke out against an ordinance that sought to adopt LGBT protections in Charlotte.
Billy Graham ran a full page ad in favor of Amendment One, the constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman. The ad was paid for by the Charlotte based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, of which Franklin Graham is CEO.
Franklin Graham also pulled his money from Wells Fargo after they featured a commercial featuring a gay couple adopting a deaf child. He moved his money to BB&T, which, it just so happens, may be even more pro-gay than his former bank, which you can watch Rachel Maddow gleefully pointing out below.
Nothing like his father except for the sin of usury of course; that one’s okay with preachers, and tax free too!